MOVIE QUEST [Early Access PC Game Review]

MOVIE QUEST
Developed by SourJ
Available on Steam in Early Access

Have you got friends dotted around the world? What if you could meet up with them and go watch a movie together at a cinema without ever leaving your house? Well, now you can with indie videogame MOVIE QUEST.

MOVIE QUEST recreates the cinema experience for single players, as well as groups of players, allowing you to wander around a cinema foyer, interact with the arcade games, complete quests and sit down to watch a range of movies from years gone by. Rather than your traditional videogame, MOVIE QUEST instead wants to give you that thrill you experience from the moment you enter the cinema plex, right to taking your seat in the auditorium, and boy, does it achieve it!

When you first start the game, you get to choose your character from around six preset character models of different genres and ethnicity. There’s no clothing customisation here, perhaps that will come with time, but you can change your character’s name. You can also purchase hats in-game using your in-game credits so, from that aspect, you can add a bit of personality to your character however limited it may be. You can also create more than one character as a separate profile with its own level should you wish to switch between the two or start again. Once your character has been selected and name given, it’s time to venture into the cinema!

What struck me when I first loaded MOVIE QUEST on my PC was the attention to detail the solo developer SourJ has brought to the game in creating an immersive theatrical experience. There’s the ticket booth, concessions counter and then the sprawling arcade full of games that are often seen lining the arcades at real theaters. As of writing this review, there’s only one particular game that is playable (a take on Flappy Bird which I utterly suck at), but hopefully with time some of the other games will be playable including the grabber machine, just like how some of the arcade games are playable in Sega’s Yakuza series.

The walls of the cinema are adorned with theatrical posters for the films on show as well as some funny meme type images and spoof posters (Loki-hee starring MJ is a favourite of mine). There’s even a screen that showcases video advertisements, like you often see when loitering in the foyer waiting for the film to start, drawing your attention in the dark, neon-lit environment. The ads screening during my playthrough included a ‘No Smoking’ advert, featuring Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean, and a clip from the 1966 Adam West Batman movie, a film that’s being screened in the auditorium in-game and one I hadn’t actually realised existed til now. Shame on me, I know! Another great inclusion is that SourJ has advertisement posters in in the foyer and lining the halls that allow your Youtube channel or Twitch channel to be featured in the game – a nifty idea which brings creators and players together in this theatrical simulation.

Judging from the official Steam page for MOVIE QUEST, the films screened in-game change every so often so some of the films are only available to watch for a limited time. This is a great idea to keep the game fresh and encourage players to return to the game to watch movies solo or with friends. During my playthrough, films included The Three Stooges, House on Haunted Hill (1959), Night of the Living Dead, Batman, The Street Fighter and Little Shop of Horrors. Films that are in the public domain seem to be the films of choice to screen. You don’t actually need a ticket to any of these screenings. Instead, you just simply walk down the corridor to your chosen screen and walk into the portal that will put you at the base of the stairs that lead to an abundance of seats. Who doesn’t love an empty screening where you can choose wherever you want to sit? Once you’ve decided on the seat, you can press a key to sit down and enjoy the movie, either solo or with friends. I’m not sure this is, or will ever be, a VR compatible game but I bet it would be an incredible experience watching the movie through a VR headset once settled in the auditorium.

When not watching movies, you’ll find that throughout the cinema there are various characters and interactions that provide quests, such as collecting pizza slices or helping the janitor clean the toilets. Some of these can be undertaken repeatedly throughout the game to earn tickets and cash which can then be spent on things like energy drinks, popcorn and even exchanged for a horse head mask (I’m saving up for that one!). Again, this is early days so the quests haven’t been developed too much but more quests will surely be added as time goes by as the theater manager character in-game suggests. Completing these quests though help to level your character up so you can do things like laugh or scream during the screening or, if you want to run the risk of bringing the wrath down on your character from their fellow patrons, throw popcorn. If you do want a challenge though, the developer has snuck an obstacle course into the game which, in a word, is DIFFICULT. It’s totally out of place in its cinema setting but it somehow just seems to work. Kudos to anyone who can complete it as this game isn’t for the faint-hearted.

As a game in the traditional sense of the word, MOVIE QUEST still has a way to go in developing the interactive arcade games and quests, however as a theatrical simulation, SourJ has created a breathtaking re-enactment of the cinema experience. That awe and excitement flooded my soul as soon as I cast eyes upon the environments and as I wandered around exploring everything it had to offer, it wowed me even more. This is such an achievement for any development team but especially a team of one. With the game still in development, I eagerly look forward to what SourJ has planned to make the theatrical experience even greater.